Problem: A rectangle is $4$ centimeters long. The rectangle is also $2$ centimeters wide. What is its area?
Answer: $4\text{ cm}$ $2\text{ cm}$ The area is the length times the width. The length is 4 centimeters. The width is 2 centimeters. Thus the area is $4\times2$ square centimeters. $ \text{area} = 4 \times 2 = 8 $ We can also count 8 square centimeters.